Category: 1940’s / 1950’s
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Bernard Wardle Fabric Design
The company Bernard Wardle started in the 1930’s and by the late 40’s were producing a wonderful variety of designs in cotton chintz and hand & roller printed linen for interiors from their base in Stockport, Cheshire. Above picture shows the bee logo on the selvedge of a piece of 1930’s /40’s linen. ‘french garden’ an early…
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Vintage Jonelle Fabric from John Lewis
The first John Lewis store was opened in London in 1864. An up market store originally selling textiles and fabric, later selling a wide variety of items for the home. They introduced the Jonelle fabric range in 1937, since 2000 the name was dropped in favour of John Lewis. From the late 1940’s onwards they…
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Vintage Heals Fabric from Winchester
We called in at Winchester on the way home from a short holiday by the sea recently. What an interesting place with some beautiful buildings and a long history, ….. As always we searched the local shops for vintage fabric and came across ‘Winchester antiques centre’ in one of the back streets. We found treasure…
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Ideas for Using Vintage Fabric – 1950’s Style Striped Dresses
I always loved the dresses my mum wore in the summer when I was little. The ones I remember most were striped, with full skirts and a fitted bodice, sometimes the stripes would be horizontal on the skirt and vertical on the bodice. Here’s our family in 1958, with Mum in one of her striped…
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My Vintage Fabric Stash
Bundles of fabric from my collection.This one include several spotted fabrics, the green in silk, the navy rayon and the bottom one cotton. 1940’s fabrics inc early Liberty silk and 50’s crepe.  The one below has some lovely pieces of 1940’s rayon and cotton, French toile and old Liberty checked silk.  This pile…
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Ideas for using Vintage Fabric – Pink Shot Silk & Cotton Dupioni.
This vintage late 1930’s early 40’s pink dress making shot fabric has a darker pink slub cotton one side and satin-like silk dupioni on the right side (though each side could be used uppermost). Wonderful stuff which is fairly heavy and could be used in many different ways.. It would make a lovely long full skirted…
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What People Make with the Fabric I Sell – Shot Silk Outfit by Kitty Lou
Kitty Lou bought some vintage tartan check shot silk from me and kindly sent photos of the finished outfit..fantastic.  She collects 1940’s vintage sewing patterns and is a seamstress herself too, making reproduction clothing with original patterns. Check out her facebook page it is really worth seeing. Kitty Lous’s authentic outfit, reminded me of…
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Ideas for using Vintage Fabric – Marilyn Monroe Wiggle Dress
The iconic wiggle dress made famous in the 1950’s by Marilyn Monroe was an the style to be seen in at the time and one that has lasted. So called as it fitted so closely round the legs that it was necessary to wiggle to walk.. Marilyn is seen ablove with her husband Arthur Miller…
Ali Vintage Fabric 